| The article below first
appeared in the Miami Daily News in 1947.......
The day is rapidly approaching when Dade Countians will be given their first opportunity to see the beautiful park which the county commission has, through its foresight, been able to develop on their behalf. Sometime in September, the Rickenbacker Causeway will be opened, permitting vehicle traffic to Virginia and Biscayne Keys. The people of the area will be quick to realize that the county commission and the county park department faced a monumental problem in the development of Crandon Park. That portion of Biscayne Key which makes up Crandon Park was donated to the county with the provision that the county must construct a causeway from the mainland. It is being built with money obtained from the sale of self liquidating bonds which will be serviced by tolls collected on vehicles crossing the causeway. The park improvement, financed largely with money from the regular park fund, will not be entirely completed when the first visitors arrive on the key. Inadequate funds, the problem of transporting all materials by barge and the difficulty of having to carry workers to and from the key by boat each day have combined to retard the development. |
In 1927, Key Biscayne was covered with palm trees and surrounded by the pristine waters of Biscayne Bay. The opening of Crandon Park and the Rickenbacker Causeway changed this sleepy coconut plantation into one of the finest destination Islands anywhere in just 20 years. |
| First concessions operating
in the park are to be housed in temporary structures. These will
be replaced by attractive permanent buildings as rapidly as time and availability
of funds permit Meanwhile nothing can detract from the natural beauties
of the park.
Visitors to the park will view two miles of the most beautiful beach in the country, if not in the world. They will bathe in clear, calm waters, protected from heavy surf by an offshore reef. They will be able to relax under any of the hundreds of palm trees growing practically at the water's edge. They will be able to disport themselves in a setting whose qualities are recognized by the makers of motion pictures as outranking any in the country. All these invaluable assets will become the property of all the people of Dade County for nothing -- a park conservatively valued at $25,000,000 without the expenditure of a single tax dollar for its purchase. The new park will bear the same name of the man who sparked its development with his untiring efforts. Chairman Charles H. Crandon of the county commission has performed long and arduous labors to bring about the completion of this tremendous asset. It will serve as a constant reminder of his vision and his dedication to the public welfare. |
